{"id":6189,"date":"2019-10-15T14:15:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T19:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/5bd4f92546.nxcli.net\/?p=6189"},"modified":"2019-11-07T14:16:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T20:16:31","slug":"feeling-overwhelmed-by-emails-heres-how-you-can-clean-out-your-inbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluecotton.com\/blog\/business\/feeling-overwhelmed-by-emails-heres-how-you-can-clean-out-your-inbox\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeling Overwhelmed By Emails? Here’s How You Can Clean Out Your Inbox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to Statista, at least 50 percent of all emails sent this year were spam<\/a>. Given that by 2020, we\u2019ll see approximately 320 billion daily emails<\/a>, that\u2019s a lot <\/em>of spam. And that doesn\u2019t even account from all the email notifications, marketing content, newsletters, and work emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

To be frank, it\u2019s overwhelming. <\/em>We are already a society suffering under perpetual notification fatigue. We already have countless colleagues, acquaintances, and brands constantly <\/em>vying for our attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would not be an exaggeration to say that most of us simply lack the energy to deal with an inbox flooded with unnecessary emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that we don\u2019t need to be. It may take a bit of finagling, but it\u2019s entirely possible to reach the coveted inbox zero<\/em> state. It starts with prioritization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we\u2019ll focus on the easy stuff – mailing lists and digests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at each mailing list you\u2019re subscribed to. When was the last time you actually read <\/em>something from that mailing list? When was the last time you saw content that was relevant and interesting to you, and that you could not track down elsewhere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your answer is anything other than \u201ctoday\u201d or \u201cyesterday,\u201d then unsubscribe. It might take some time, but it\u2019ll be worth it to cut off spam at the source. And as one more point to add to the above, if any of the mailing lists you\u2019re subscribed to make you jump through hoops to cancel your subscription, just mark them as spam – because that\u2019s what they are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same framework can be applied to email notifications from services like Facebook. You don\u2019t need to know when someone comments on a Facebook post or likes something you shared. You presumably have push notifications for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, you\u2019ll want to speak to your colleagues and co-workers. Ask them to connect with you on Slack or a similar messaging service if they need to reach you urgently. Work with them to reduce the number of unnecessary email chains and group emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And moreover, don\u2019t be afraid to delete or archive emails that aren\u2019t relevant to you. That\u2019s a good segue into our last piece of advice. To keep your inbox in a manageable state, you\u2019ll want to reframe your approach to email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whenever you receive an email, take a quick look at it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n